23/02/2018 BBC News at One

Extensive abuse of vulnerable women

is still going unrecognised

across the UK, and needs

to be urgently addressed.

A serious case review

following the sexual exploitation

of women in Newcastle warns

that the scale of the problem

still isn't acknowledged.

It continues, it carries on,

I would suggest, in most towns

and cities in the UK.

We'll have the latest

on the warnings from Newcastle.

Also this lunchtime...

Mistakes in prescribing

or administering drugs in the NHS

could cause 1700 deaths a year

in England, according

to a Government report.

The Florida school shooting -

an armed policeman on campus

has resigned, after it

emerged he didn't intervene

on the day 17 people died.

Royal Bank of Scotland,

largely owned by the taxpayer,

records its first annual profit

in a decade.

And crunch time in the curling

at the Winter Olympics -

Team GB's women are in action

in the semi-final against Sweden

Also in sport on BBC News, another

Olympic athlete from Russia failed a

drugs test but they do have a first

gold of the games in the figure

skating.

Good afternoon and welcome

to the BBC News at One.

There's a warning that

vulnerable young women

are being abused across the UK -

and that the extent of the crimes

isn't yet recognised.

A serious case review has

been published following

Operation Sanctuary,

which saw 18 people convicted

for exploiting girls in Newcastle

over a three-year period.

While today's report says police

and the council dealt

with that situation well,

it's calling on the Government

to address the issue

of adult vulnerability

as a matter of urgency.

Our correspondent Fiona

Trott is in Newcastle.

Today the victims of that sexual

exploitation in Newcastle received

an apology. The expert involved in

the review thanked them for coming

forward and said they were

profoundly sorry for what the girls

and women had suffered, and the fact

that women were involved in that

abuse has raised a new concern to

date. The report authors say the

extensive abuse of adults will be

happening across the UK but it is

going unnoticed. It is one of the

key issues raised as part of

Operation Sanctuary.

A city coming to terms with

Sanctuary. The investigation may be

over but the report says sexual

exploitation still exists, and the

police know it. It is white takeaway

staff across this city are being

trained on how to spot potential

victims. Today, a warning to all

towns and cities across the UK, the

safeguarding of vulnerable adults

needs to be addressed as a matter of

urgency.

It was a specific feature

of the Newcastle experience that it

was not just children who were

victims of sexual exploitation. What

I would like the Government to do is

have a really good look at the

learning that is now available about

abuse of adults with

vulnerabilities.

On the streets,

victims were groomed by men mostly

from Pakistani, Indian and

Bangladeshi backgrounds. They were

given so many drugs and alcohol they

could not defend themselves against

sexual abuse. Their experiences are

included in the report.

I started

seeing younger girls there being

raped. Schoolgirls in uniform with

their schoolbags coming from school.

I went constantly for the morning

after pill, to different places.

Vanessa, not her real name, was a

victim of sexual exploitation. To

protect her identity we have used an

actor's boys.

I will see girls

begging on the street and a normal

man wearing a suit approaches them

for sex. I see that all the time.

The report says sexual exploitation

still exists, charities on the

ground tell us 14-year-old girls are

still being picked up by men in

cars.

Are you doing enough? We stop

it with the assistance of the public

so the first question to the people

who have seen that, did they

reported to the police? Did they

take the registration, get details

of the people? I would like to think

they are reporting it to us. It

would be naive and wrong for me to

suggest that because of Sanctuary,

and at the point the report is

published, that this is dropped and

that we have solved the problem. We

haven't. It continues, it carries

on, I would suggest, in most if not

all towns and cities in the UK.

And

that is why today's report said all

towns and cities should

automatically assume sexual

exploitation is happening on their

doorstep. Only then can it be

tackled properly.

The report is also recommending

today that research is carried out

into perpetrators' backgrounds,

their cultural backgrounds, because

the report author, David Spicer,

went to visit one of the

perpetrators in prison and spoke

about a lack of morals in British

girls. A Government spokesman has

said it will now look carefully at

the recommendations of today's

report.

Fiona Trott, thank you.

Mistakes when patients

are prescribed or administered drugs

could be the cause of 1700 deaths

a year in England,

and contribute to thousands more.

A report commissioned by ministers

says GPs, pharmacists,

hospitals and care homes could be

making millions of errors a year.

The Health Secretary Jeremy Hunt

says the system around medciation

has to be modernised,

but he's acknowledged that staffing

pressures are also a factor.

Here's our health editor, Hugh Pym.

The report covers mistakes

made in the prescribing,

dispensing and administering

of medication in England.

These could involve

GPs, pharmacists, care

homes and hospitals.

The research is said to be one

of the first exercises of its kind.

It found that medication errors

could cause around 1700 deaths

a year, and perhaps contribute to up

to 22,000 deaths.

The cost to the NHS could be around

£1.6 billion a year.

It does note that the vast majority

of prescriptions dispensed

in the NHS are safe,

and mistakes do occur

in all health care systems.

Shirley was admitted to hospital

last week with pneumonia.

While she was there she was

mistakenly given double the dose

of her regular epilepsy medication.

It was only spotted by her husband

after her condition got worse.

She was hallucinating,

she didn't know where she was.

I mean, she doesn't remember

what happened now, even today she's

still not clear on what happened,

her memory's still coming back

and she's still very

modelled from it all.

-- muddled from it all.

And I think it really

upset my grandad as well to see,

it was quite scary.

The Health and Social Care

Secretary, Jeremy Hunt,

said it was a far bigger problem

globally than had so far been

recognised, causing appalling

levels of harm and death.

This is not about blaming doctors,

nurses, pharmacists who work under

a huge amount of pressure,

but it's about putting checks

and balances in place

with e-prescribing systems

and making sure the culture is right

so that if someone does make

a mistake they're not criminalised

for it, but we can actually

learn from that mistake

and stop it being repeated.

Health unions said it was right

to try to reduce mistakes,

but said understaffing and pressure

of work was the real problem.

One of our real concerns is that

when we've got a time,

which we have at the moment,

when there's not enough staff,

that people are working not always

in the area that they're most

experienced, not with the same

people every day, not always

knowing the patients -

that is fraught with danger

in terms of safety.

The best thing is to have the right

knowledge, the right skills,

the right number of people

knowing your patient and actually

knowing what you're doing.

The National Pharmacy Association

said it welcomed the focus

on reducing medication errors,

but stressed that a culture

of learning rather

than blame was needed.

Hugh Pym, BBC News.

European Union leaders

are meeting in Brussels,

without Theresa May,

to discuss the EU's

future after Brexit.

Here, senior Cabinet ministers say

there was 'outbreak of unity'

at yesterday's crucial meeting

to discuss the UK's next steps.

The Prime Minister will give more

details in a speech next week.

Our Europe correspondent

Damian Grammaticas is at the EU

summit in Brussels.

Yes, it has been a busy day already

here so far for EU leaders. They

have had one meeting already this

morning with North African

countries, then they came across the

road and are now in discussions

about some of those issues the EU

will face after the UK leads, but of

course they are all waiting to hear

the outcome of those deliberations

at Chequers last night. The

president of the commission,

Jean-Claude Juncker, said to me he

would not comment until he has seen

the detail of what the UK has

agreed.

In Brussels, a busy day of summits,

a crush of presidents and prime

ministers in town. An unusual sight,

the EU's top leaders walking from

one meeting to the next, but no UK

leader. The day after Theresa May

and her cabinet thrashed out that

approach to future ties, the EU

leaders are still waiting to hear

what the UK wants. But with this

warning...

It is not possible to be

aligned to the European Union when

it suits and not when it doesn't,

that is not possible. So I think the

United Kingdom really needs to

square that circle and it doesn't

appear to me that circle has yet

been squared but hopefully when the

Prime Minister speaks next week the

United Kingdom will be more clear

about what it wants in terms of the

new relationship, and will back that

up with real detail.

At today's

meeting the EU's 27 leaders are

starting to tackle some of the

tricky issues the UK's exit from the

union creates. The most contentious,

the hole left in the EU budget. At

least 10 billion new rosy year,

roughly 10% of current spending. So

the dilemma, will some countries pay

more or will some receive less? And

what to do about the UK's seats in

the European Parliament? 73 UK MEPs

will go, seats will be cut and some

we distributed to other countries.

But it is the money that will

provoke the biggest arguments. Some

don't want to see their payments go

up, Denmark is one.

Is your country prepared to pay more

after Brexit?

Know, if I should keep

my answer short I should say no.

Britain leaving the EU will not make

any of us staying richer so I think

we should stay to the idea of

putting a limit or cap on our

budget.

Others, like Romania, don't

want to see what they receive go

down.

There was a hole in the budget,

issue country prepared to accept

less and see cuts to spending?

You

know, if you listen to politicians

there is usually a hole in the

budget but finally things are

financed so if we want to finance

more, we have to pay more, it is

very simple. So this is just the

start of the arguments Brexit could

trigger among EU countries.

The

difficulties among themselves don't

for now mean any divisions in their

approach to negotiating with the UK.

And of course the EU countries are

keen to hear the outcome of the

Cabinet deliberations because those

will have a very important impact on

the discussions, the negotiations,

going forward. But if the

indications from what we are hearing

about what the Cabinet may have

agreed right, that the UK wants a

trade deal and are negotiating

better access on top of that, well,

the EU has already been very cold

about that idea, so that could be

something that is difficult to

achieve. It leaves open the

achieve. It leaves open the question

of what would happen in Ireland and

to the border there, that is still

unresolved as well, and unclear.

Very interesting, thank you, Damien

grammatical is in Brussels.

Let's talk about that with our

political correspondent, Iain

Watson. What is this sense of what

the Cabinet is thinking and saying?

And interesting juncture in all of

this? In a sense we are a week or

two early because this time next

week the Prime Minister will be

setting out her vision for our

future relationship with the

European Union, her big speech, but

as I understand it what emerged from

Chequers yesterday from eight hours

of discussions that the Cabinet's

subcommittee on Brexit decided by

and large have signed up

and large have signed up to a

recognition. What does that mean? It

means a swathe of areas, proposals

for the Government where we draw our

own rules and regulations after

Brexit and because they will be at

the same level or higher than the EU

then the Government believes trade

could continue unimpeded. As we

heard, though, from Damien, the EU

may take a different view when the

negotiations get under way. Another

potential spanner that might be put

in the Prime Minister's works

because to have a new customs

arrangement, for example, that would

affect the Irish border, she needs

to get her legislation through

Parliament and some people in her

own ranks, some Tory rebels, are

trying to

change that legislation to commit

the Government to staying in a

customs union with the EU, something

Theresa May does not want to do.

Meanwhile, Labour seem to be

changing their position, more

sympathetic to staying in a customs

union long-term. They could side

with those Tory rebels in the weeks

ahead and potentially inflict defeat

on the Government. Thank you, for

now, Iain Watson, at Westminster.

An armed policeman in Florida has

resigned from his job after a video

showed him standing outside

the school where 17 people were shot

dead by a former pupil last week.

Scott Peterson arrived 90 seconds

after the attack began -

but didn't go inside immediately

to confront the gunman.

Charlotte Gallagher reports.

There was chaos as pupils ran

to escape a gunman indiscriminately

shooting teachers and students

with an assault rifle.

The school's football coach,

who was shot dead, has been hailed

a hero for throwing himself in front

of a child to protect them.

Now it's emerged that an armed

police officer was at the high

school but stood outside

as the shooting took place.

Deputy Scot Peterson has resigned

after being suspended.

The area's sheriff said

Peterson should have acted.

Scot Peterson was absolutely

on-campus through this entire event.

He was armed, he was in uniform.

But what I saw was a deputy arrive

at the west side of building 12,

take up a position,

and he never went in.

As the funerals take place of the 17

victims of the shootings,

a fierce debate is raging about how

to stop another school massacre.

President Trump has

suggested arming teachers.

I think a concealed permit

for having teachers,

and letting people know

that there are people

in the building with a gun,

you won't have, in my opinion,

you won't have these shootings,

because these people are cowards.

His suggestion has been

condemned by many teachers,

who say the only way to stop

shootings in schools is to have

fewer guns, not more.

Charlotte Gallacher, BBC News.

A fourth British tourist has died

as a result of the helicopter crash

in the Grand Canyon nearly

a fortnight ago.

Jonathan Udall, who was in his 30s

and from Brighton, was on honeymoon.

His wife, Ellie Milward remains

in a critical condition in hospital,

along with another British woman

and the helicopter pilot.

Royal Bank of Scotland,

which is majority-owned

by taxpayers,

has recorded an annual profit

for the first time in a decade.

The bank made £752 million in 2017,

compared with a loss

of almost 7 billion the year before.

The bank's Chief Executive says it's

a really symbolic moment.

Our economics editor

Kamal Ahmed is with me.

Sounds positive, what do we read

into this? It is symbolic and good

that a bank we have a stake in has

made a profit for the first time in

ten years, this was a big global

whiskey bank.

But it has trained up its act to an

extent and sold a lot of foreign

businesses, now mostly focused on

the UK and Republic of Ireland, now

still there are big risks. Facing

fines in America for involvement in

the mortgage crisis, money to pay to

compensate small businesses here,

and the big question is, when will

the taxpayer get our money back, for

all of that money that we put into

the bank when it nearly went bust in

2008. A little bit earlier today I

spoke with the Chief Executive Ross

McKinnon

and put that question straight to

him. Yes they have put in 45 billion

but we are going to put in as much

so that we can get as much back for

the taxpayer as we possibly can.

This bank is a really good bang for

the UK, and how much money the

government gets back will depend

upon the market at the time.

It

could be years and years?

It could

be, and when you are selling 70% of

a business, it will take a number of

years to come through.

-- Ross

McEwan.

The government itself has

said they want to start that process

in the fiscal year 2018/19, it will

take three to five years for them to

get down to a much smaller

percentage.

percentage.

So, better news today,

still lots of risks, and a long time

until we get our money back.

Our top story this lunchtime.

A report warns extensive abuse of

vulnerable women is still going

unrecognised across the UK - and

needs to be urgently addressed.

Still to come: a new warning about

tooth erosion, experts say it is not

just what we eat but how and when we

eat.

In sport, the draw has been made for

the last 16 of the Europa League,

the Arsenal have a difficult tie,

taking on Italian giants AC Milan.

The UN Security Council

will consider calls later today

for a nationwide ceasefire in Syria

to allow for badly needed

humanitarian aid deliveries.

There were more air strikes this

morning targeting the rebel held

area of eastern Ghouta,

near Damascus,

which has been under

heavy bombardment since Sunday.

More than 400 people are reported

to have been killed.

Martin Patience reports.

There are some disturbing images in

this report, from neighbouring

Lebanon.

Another frantic search for

survivors. An air strike has just

hit.

SHOUTING

A child is brought out of the

burning building. But a woman is

trapped inside. They are struggling

to find her. Come down, come down,

they are shouting... They find her.

In another home, another rescue. But

for the dead, there is no peace

here. EXPLOSIONS

Even those burying a victim are

running for cover.

More than a million Syrians have

fled over the mountains, into

neighbouring Lebanon. We spoke to

one couple from Eastern Ghouta. He

and his wife did not want their

faces shown, fearing reprisals from

the Syrian government.

TRANSLATION:

I last spoke to my

cousin three days ago, it was

terrible, he told me that they were

waiting to die. He asked me to for

give him, if I never heard from him

again. His little boy was killed, he

was just three and a half. I have

not heard from my cousin since.

He

plays me the last message he got

from his cousin.

They are destroying Ghouta, he says.

Please pray for us.

The value of the company that runs

the Snapchat messaging app,

has fallen by a

billion

pounds

after the reality TV star

Kylie Jenner tweeted

that she doesn't use it anymore.

The app had a controversial

redesign last year.

Our Technology Correspondent

Rory

Cellan-Jones

is here.

Remarkable what one comment can

apparently do!

The power of

celebrity, on all sorts of social

media services. Kylie Jenner, very

well-known reality star, as a huge

following on Snapchat and has 24

million Twitter followers, 20 people

saw her tweet. But have a look at

it:

what a bombshell, because she was

one of its biggest supporters, it

has had this redesign. The shares

fell about 6% after them. You can

never actually link an event to a

share price movement in that way, it

did seem significant, but let's face

it, Snapchat shares are extremely

volatile, this is the company that

could grow to be huge, as big as

Facebook, by some reckoning, but

could evaporate within months,

according to others. Shares rose

earlier this month by 50% in one day

because it had some good figures

out. Now it is under pressure

because people are worrying about

the redesign which has not been

popular with a lot of users. There

has been a petition about it, a

million users have signed it. We can

expect shares to go up and down as

people change their mind every 15

minutes about whether or not it is

the future(!)

Sipping hot fruit teas and snacking

in between meals can

increase your chances

of tooth erosion.

That's according to scientists

at King's College London,

who say it's not just what we eat

but how and when we eat that

affects our dental health.

Catherine Burns reports.

just going to have a probe around

the gums.

Back in the dentist chair,

even though she thought she looked

after her teeth well, she has tooth

erosion, Rachel had a bad habit she

did not even know about.

The way I

drink normally, especially if it is

flavoured, I drink it and hold it in

my mouth longer than the average

person I suppose, perhaps the taste,

something like that. Again, that

more exposure to my teeth, in my

mouth longer than just swallowing it

down.

As vices ago it does not sound

so terrible but researchers say that

it is bad news for your teeth.

We

found that one in six people had

habits like sipping things really

slowly or sipping them around their

mouth, rinsing it around your mouth.

If you do this on a daily basis for

years and years you can cause

serious damage to your teeth and

that serious damage can mean that

your whole mouth needs to be

rebuilt!

Treatment takes an average

of more than 20 months, at a cost of

£4500 on the NHS and almost £14,000

privately. It is preventable, mostly

by cutting back on acidic food and

drink, some things, like fruit, are

generally seen as the healthy option

but from a dental point of view they

can erode teeth. This report

mentioned adding lemon or lime to

your water, sugar free soft drinks,

ranking fruit teas and snacking on

fruit... Take these grapes, for

example, if you eat ten or 20 of

them in one sitting, that would be

one acid attack on your teeth, if

you eat the same amount over a

longer period of time, it would be a

sustained attack. Should people

scrap their five a day to protect

their teeth, is a resurgence say

that is the last thing they want.

The advice is to be aware of overall

eating patterns and to consider

snacks that are less acidic and high

in calcium.

A fresh doping case has overshadowed

the first gold medal for the Olympic

athletes from Russia at the Winter

Olympic Games in South Korea.

Elsewhere at the games Team GB's

women's curlers are in semi-final

action against Sweden,

victory will guarantee them

at least a silver medal.

But it seems that they are

struggling... !

David Ornstein is in Pyeongchang.

It does seem tense in the semifinal,

Britain up against it but going

to the wire, meanwhile, the day will

be remembered for the achievements

of a teenage female figure skater.

Is 15 years of age, the new star of

figure skating, dancing for a place

in sporting legend, the young

pretender, as they have called her,

Alina Zagitova, unbeaten in her

debut season, she now faces the

biggest test of all, leaving

competitors in a spin to stand on

the verge of greatness. Only one

skater could deny her, her

compatriot, training partner and

archrival, Evgenia Medvedeva, the

two-time reigning world champion

looked set for glory, but the judges

decided otherwise.

COMMENTATOR:

Heartbreak for Evgenia Medvedeva who

thought she had done enough.

Alina

Zagitova could rejoice, second

youngest figure skating champion in

Olympic history.

CHEERING

Rigged the first gold medal of these

games for an athlete from Russia,

competing here as neutrals after the

country was found guilty of

state-sponsored doping, there are

national anthem and flag replaced by

Olympic equivalents.

For Britain,

the besieged of a record fifth medal

resumed in the curling arena,

traditionally a happy hunting

ground. Even your head, her team and

their supporters looking to at least

emulate the bronze medal won in the

Saatchi games four years ago but a

semifinal against Sweden beat them

in the groups would not be

straightforward and the

Scandinavians made the better start.

COMMENTATOR: That is out.

Curling

often comes down to the smallest

COMMENTATOR: That is out.

Curling

often comes down to the smallest of

margins, soon, a moment of Muirhead

brilliance, Britain were level,

three apiece at the half level.

Well

done, even Muirhead! However, Sweden

regained momentum and raced into a

convincing lead, 8-3 up with three

ends to go.

British hopes resting on

thin ice.

ends to go.

British hopes resting on

thin ice.

In the last couple of minutes,

Britain's women have gone out, they

can still win a bronze medal and

that would make this most successful

ever Winter Olympics for the nation.

The IOC International Olympic

Committee have confirmed they have

received notification of a positive

drugs test for a Russian bobsleigh

athlete, and if proven, that will be

the second Russian to have tested

positive at these games, it has put

a cloud over the possible

reintegration, the lifting of the

ban, ahead of the closing ceremony

on Sunday.

Residents of care homes regularly

enjoy special events - everything

from art lessons to magicians. But a

home in Dorset has tried something

rather different - when pole dancers

staged a display. Some people have

criticised the decision: but the

care home owners say the dancers

could be back. Here's Duncan

Kennedy.

It is a long way from Sidoti, but

residents at this care home asked

for more modern entertainment and

this is what they got, and by all

accounts, they thoroughly enjoyed

it! -- sudoku. But the pole dancer

has sent some local councillors into

a spin, with one councillor saying

it is completely inappropriate.

Eyebrows raised, what did you make

of that? It wasn't unexpected!

Eleanor is the co-founder of the

company that provided the pole

dancers. A supple, seasons dancer

herself, she says, come on, it is

2018.

Yes, it is used to titillate,

all of this, that is OK, that is

fine, that it is more than just

that, it has gone beyond that now,

it is taking on its own life form,

just because it has a foundation

does not mean it has to stop there.

That open attitude is shared by the

care home itself, hearing Christ

Church, in a statement they have

said that all the pole dancers were

wearing gym kit and the residents,

some of whom have dementia, were

given the option of attending the

session. It said both residents and

relatives are happy with what

happened. The home also says pole

dancing could become an Olympic

sport. But do others think it is

right for elderly residents?

I think

it is quite a good idea, why not, I

have worked in old people's homes,

and I think they should do what they

want, really! Why not, enjoy

themselves while they can!

You might

think, why didn't they opt for a

different type of dance, but there

is a stigma over Paul Downton, is it

good or bad. Your view? Undecided!

-- there is a stigma over pole

dancing.

This may have produced an

outpouring of reaction in some

parts, but the care home says it is

now up for inviting the Pole

dancers back.

Time for the weather forecast.

Sunshine we will keep through the

weekend, on the strength of the

wind, bitterly cold, as we go into

next week, things turn colder.

Increasing chance that some of us

could see snow, but back to the here

and now, whether into the next week

is dominated by this area of high

pressure over Scandinavia, feeding

in the cold air all the way from the

Arctic, honest lengthening east

south-easterly wind, pushing in more

clout across parts of North

Easington, Southern clout across

south-west England and Northern

Ireland, elsewhere, good deal of

sunshine. The thermometer may read

four to seven Celsius, it will feel

colder than that. The wind will

continue to push in more clout

across parts of north-east England

and Anglia overnight, not quite as

cold as it was, lire skies elsewhere

and these blue colours show how low

temperatures will get, -2, -3, a few

cold spots perhaps down to minus

five. Cold frosty start to the day

tomorrow, good deal of sunshine for

much of the country. Some

exceptions, Northern Ireland, seeing

clout, eastern parts of Scotland,

again, given the strength of the

win, although the thermometer me

read four to seven Celsius, it will

feel colder. Tomorrow evening and

night, another cold one, mainly

clear skies. More clout feeding into

eastern parts of Scotland and

northern England. -- cloud.

Temperatures down to -2, minus

three. We do it all again on Sunday,

a cold, frosty start but for many, a

good deal of sunshine, more in the

way of sunshine for Northern Ireland

and south-east England. A chance of

wintry flurries for northern parts

of Scotland and England. -- eastern

parts of Scotland. Brisk and gusty

easterly wind, coming, in places it

will feel like -2 or three degrees,

had eagerly across parts of East

Anglia. -- -2 or minus three

degrees. Staying in the cold air,

still feeding in the cold east or

north-easterly. In that set up,

increasing chance that we could see

some snow next week. --

particularly